Theodicy

A free download from http://www.dertz.in

Theodicy

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Theodicy, by G. W. Leibniz This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Theodicy Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil
Author: G. W. Leibniz
Commentator: Austin Farrer
Translator: E.M. Huggard
Release Date: November 24, 2005 [EBook #17147]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEODICY ***

Produced by John Hagerson, Juliet Sutherland, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Theodicy
Essays on the Goodness of God the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil
G.W. LEIBNIZ
Edited with an Introduction by Austin Farrer, Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford
Translated by E.M. Huggard from C.J. Gerhardt's Edition of the Collected Philosophical Works, 1875-90
Open [Logo] Court
La Salle, Illinois 61301
* * * * *
[Logo]
OPEN COURT and the above logo are registered in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
Published 1985 by Open Court Publishing Company, Peru, Illinois 61354. This edition first published 1951 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, London. Second printing 1988 Third printing 1990 Fourth printing 1993 Fifth printing 1996
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von, 1646-1716. Theodicy: essays on the goodness of God, the freedom of man, and the origin of evil.
Translation of: Essais de Th��odic��e. Includes index. 1. Theodicy--Early works to 1800. I. Title. B2590.E5 1985 231'.8 85-8833 ISBN O-87548-437-9
[5] * * * * *
CONTENTS
* * * * *
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION page 7 PREFACE 49 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION ON THE CONFORMITY OF FAITH WITH 73 REASON ESSAYS ON THE JUSTICE OF GOD AND THE FREEDOM OF MAN IN THE 123, 182, 276 ORIGIN OF EVIL, IN THREE PARTS APPENDICES SUMMARY OF THE CONTROVERSY, REDUCED TO FORMAL ARGUMENTS 377 EXCURSUS ON THEODICY, �� 392 389 REFLEXIONS ON THE WORK THAT MR. HOBBES PUBLISHED IN 393 ENGLISH ON 'FREEDOM, NECESSITY AND CHANCE' OBSERVATIONS ON THE BOOK CONCERNING 'THE ORIGIN OF EVIL', 405 PUBLISHED RECENTLY IN LONDON CAUSA DEI ASSERTA 443 INDEX 445
[7] * * * * *
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
* * * * *
I
Leibniz was above all things a metaphysician. That does not mean that his head was in the clouds, or that the particular sciences lacked interest for him. Not at all--he felt a lively concern for theological debate, he was a mathematician of the first rank, he made original contributions to physics, he gave a realistic attention to moral psychology. But he was incapable of looking at the objects of any special enquiry without seeing them as aspects or parts of one intelligible universe. He strove constantly after system, and the instrument on which his effort relied was the speculative reason. He embodied in an extreme form the spirit of his age. Nothing could be less like the spirit of ours. To many people now alive metaphysics means a body of wild and meaningless assertions resting on spurious argument. A professor of metaphysics may nowadays be held to deal handsomely with the duties of his chair if he is prepared to handle metaphysical statements at all, though it be only for the purpose of getting rid of them, by showing them up as confused forms of something else. A chair in metaphysical philosophy becomes analogous to a chair in tropical diseases: what is taught from it is not the propagation but the cure.
Confidence in metaphysical construction has ebbed and flowed through philosophical history; periods of speculation have been followed by periods of criticism. The tide will flow again, but it has not turned yet, and [8] such metaphysicians as survive scarcely venture further than to argue a case for the possibility of their art. It would be an embarrassing task to open an approach to Leibnitian metaphysics from the present metaphysical position, if there is a present position. If we want an agreed starting-point, it will have to be historical.
The historical importance of Leibniz's ideas is anyhow unmistakable. If metaphysical thinking is nonsensical, its empire over the human imagination must still be confessed; if it is as chimerical a science as alchemy, it is no less fertile in by-products of importance. And if we are to consider Leibniz historically, we cannot do better than take up his Theodicy, for two reasons. It was the only one of his main philosophical works to be published in his lifetime, so that it was a principal means of his direct influence; the Leibniz his own age knew was the Leibniz of the Theodicy. Then in the second place, the Theodicy itself is peculiarly rich in historical material. It reflects the world of men and books which Leibniz knew; it expresses the theological setting